A typical checkout counter (ref FIG. 1) in use in retail stores includes a loading area, a registration area and a packing area. The loading area may be provided with conveyor belts which convey goods from the loading area and into the registration area. At the registration areas goods are traditionally registered by a cashier. The registration process may include the use of automatic scanning equipment such as bar code readers operated by the cashier. The next zone is the packing area; goods are either conveyed or manually fed from the registration area to the packing area.
Recently self-service checkout counters have been introduced. Their layout and design usually resembles that of the traditional checkout counter shown in FIG. 1. However the customer is then exchanged with the cashier and a payment zone/area is added. The customer then loads the goods into the loading area or directly into the registration area where the goods are registered. After all goods have been registered the customer swipes a debit card or credit card in a card reader thereby finishing the transaction process between the goods provider and himself.
A problem with prior art checkout counters manual and self-service alike, is the possibility of erroneous scanning of goods. Even more prominent is the lack of efficiency encountered by self-service checkout counters.
It is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,137 B1 a checkout terminal which either provides self-service registration of goods or operator registration of goods by reconfiguring a checkout terminal between two modes, i.e. self-service and operator driven.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,582 disclose a checkout station which allows a single cashier to assist multiple customers simultaneously.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks related to possible erroneous registration of goods and not at least to provide an efficient checkout counter system.